No these did not come from the hardware store although they may look like they did. For all of you paraplegics who have hardware in your back this is what it might look like. These rods were installed on July 3, 2000 and removed September 10, 2002. So they were only used for 2 years and during that time they were all bent and causing much discomfort to the person who had them. It seems pretty strange to look at these and imagine having them installed in a human being. My back gets sore just looking at them. Although ChairWear is an adaptive sports apparel company we want to make your daily life in a chair better. At ChairWear we understand like not many can what kind of challenges you might face, and we are here to help. So we will also be including new designs to help represent, educate, and improve daily life.